Short on Ribs

by zydecopaws on August 22, 2011

It’s time for the 4-Ingredient Challenge, and once again the challenge was more about sourcing the ingredients than actually preparing the meal. This month the ingredient list was Short Ribs, Celery, Gluten-free Pasta, and Peaches. Peaches are in season, and celery can be found in just about any grocery store, so neither of those presented a problem. Short ribs and (appetizing) gluten-free pasta were another conversation altogether.

After wasting several hours wandering about different grocery stores, butcher shops, and warehouse stores looking for short ribs, I finally got smart and started making phone calls. Eventually I found a nice meat market in Aberdeen that had short ribs (complete with bones attached) and an hour and half drive later I was in business. The gluten-free pasta was eventually sourced at a Fred Mayer that was conveniently located on my way to somewhere else, so at least this meal wouldn’t be using rice noodles.

The meal plan was for Smoked and Braised Short Ribs with a celery-onion-carrot-mushroom gravy over brown rice noodles, topped off with a fresh peach sorbet for dessert. The meal started with the short ribs (rubbed with Simply Marvelous Season-All) in Bubba Ho-Keg at 275°F for about 2 1/2 hours.

Celery, onions, and carrots were joined in a pot with a splash of red wine, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and a handful of fresh cilantro. The short ribs went in on top, on went a lid, and back into Bubba Ho-Keg for another 1 1/2 hours.

I removed the meat from the veggies and drippings and made some gravy by adding a bit more red wine, some salt and pepper, and a flour and water mixture while the pasta was cooking. I know, so much for the gluten-free aspects of this meal…

The result was very tasty, although the family agreed they would have preferred just about any sort of “normal” pasta over the brown rice noodles. But they didn’t complain about the dessert, even though it wasn’t very photogenic.

This was originally going to be a grilled Mexican peach sorbet, but other events conspired against grilling the peaches the night before. This variety was a fairly simple recipe; white peaches blanched, skin removed, and processed in the blender with a shot of rum, a couple of tablespoons of honey, and some water, then refrigerated for about 4 hours before putting the ice cream maker to use. The result was very tasty, but a bit watery. Next time I won’t add any water.

This month we have several new bloggers taking on the challenge. Take a few minutes and see what they came up with; it will be interesting to see if any were able to incorporate the peaches in with the other three ingredients in a single dish.

About this month’s “On Our Grills” 4 Ingredient Challenge Bloggers

The BBQ Grail
The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

The Dutchess Cooks
After years of cooking, grilling, baking and reading other people’s blogs, she thought “why not start my own blog?” And she did, in 2010, but after a short period of time a blog wasn’t enough and the she started her own website. In her own words: “It’s not my goal to publish or come up with fancy and difficult recipes: just good and delicious food with an international twist! Straight from my plate to yours!”

Grill Adventures by Broadcast Marc
Grill Adventures by broadcastmarc was started in March of 2010. According to the author, he started the BBQ thing when he was 30, before that they ate a lot outside and had fun, but when kids came into their life they started serious cooking. Most of it is really healthy. The grill has a special place in his heart because they love to do things outside. Everything he makes is an adventure, and sometimes they use the books. They try to grill as much as they can year round.

Nibble Me This
Nibble Me This is Chris Grove’s blog about his misadventures in live fire cooking. ”I have no culinary training….I’m just entertaining myself with fire and food”.

Jason’s BBQ Adventures
Jason’s BBQ Adventures was started in 2007 when Jason fell in love with real BBQ the first time and tried to smoked a pork shoulder and soon after started smoking ribs, brisket, and chicken. After a while he started to experiment with grilling and smoking just about anything and ultimately fell in love with the entire cooking process.

Oshawa Ogre’s Views, News & BBQ’s
Wilfred is somewhat of a newcomer to the BBQ scene having only done standard grilling for most of his 50 years, He found and became passionate about Low & Slow about 2 years ago. and that passion also morphed into a second hobby which is writing. Oshawa Ogre’s Views News & BBQ’s has been a project that has taken on a life of it’s own and blessed him with many many new friends in the BBQ community on Twitter, facebook and through the blog.

Better Recipes “The Daily Dish”
Kristina has been writing “The Daily Dish” for www.BetterRecipes.com for the past two years. The blog covers a wide variety of recipes, but firing up the grill truly lights up her passion for food! She was named “America’s Next Pork Personality” by Guy Fieri for one of her grilled pork dishes, won the outdoor grilling division of the National Beef Cook-Off, and her winning grilled lamb-burger took her all the way to the land Down Under with Meat and Livestock Australia. The “4-Ingredient Challenge” is a fun and exciting way to get creative on the grill!